1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to toy banks, and more particularly to a modular toy bank wherein the capacity of the bank can be varied as desired.
2. Prior Art
Toy banks such as xe2x80x9cpiggy banksxe2x80x9d have been used for generations to teach and encourage children to save money. Transparent toy banks are a particularly useful teaching tool because the child can see his/her savings grow before their own eyes. A problem with prior art toy banks is that once the bank is full, and no more coins can be stored therein, the bank must be emptied in order to continue to serve the function for which it is intended. Accordingly, the child cannot view further cumulative accrued savings once the bank is full. There is, therefore, a need for a toy bank having an expandable capacity to enable a person to continuously visualize cumulative savings.
It is a first object of the invention to provide a toy bank having modular construction that is adapted to receive coins into an interior compartment and which further provides means for varying the capacity of the compartment.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a bank meeting the above objective wherein the toy bank further enables a viewer to visualize the cumulative content of the bank""s compartment.
When the capacity of a coin bank is large relative to the size of a coin, the deposition of a coin in the bank is not as visually rewarding as when the coin is deposited in a bank having a smaller capacity. In the latter case, the addition of a coin to the bank fills a larger percentage of the capacity and in the event that the child""s goal, when beginning to save, is to fill the bank, greater progress toward the goal is perceived. An overall objective of the present invention is to provide a toy bank for receiving coins wherein the capacity of the bank can be increased (or decreased) as interim goals are successively met.
In all embodiments of the modular, extendable toy bank in accordance with the present invention, the toy bank comprises: (a) a hollow head portion having a first interior chamber; (b) a body portion comprised of one or more hollow body portion segments, each of said hollow body portion segments having a second interior chamber and a pair of open ends in substantial opposition to one another; (c) a hollow tail portion having a third chamber; and (d) a plurality of body segment connector rings adapted for releasably attaching said head portion, said body portion segments and said tail portion to one another such that said first chamber, said second chambers and said third chambers form a single interior chamber. One or more of the body segments are preferably translucent to permit viewing of the contents of the single interior chamber.
The features of the invention believed to be novel are set forth with particularity in the appended claims. However the invention itself, both as to organization and method of operation, together with further objects and advantages thereof may be best understood by reference to the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which: